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Which presidential candidate is best for America's financial future?

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  • Which presidential candidate is best for America's financial future?

    This site isn't where I was planning on posting this, but on another conservative political blogging site there are a lot of hotheads on there that post personal attacks on people. You know how politics can get. Most people on here are very level-headed and mature and I respect that.

    Where I'm coming from: I am conservative with leanings toward libertarianism. I believe in personal responsibility, pursuing the American Dream, and a government that is only as big as it absolutely needs to be (which is way too big right now).

    My delimma: I don't know who to vote for. Democrats are all out; it's my opinion that party has socialistic leanings with all the governmental entitlement programs they have been proposing the last few years. Our Republican choices:

    Mike Huckabee - a big-government conservative when he was governor of Arkansas. He likely wouldn't reduce the size of the government, but I like his stand on his faith.

    John McCain - he's for amnesty. It's my opinion that unchecked illegal immigration is a major drain on the services of our government that are intended for citizens. They are significantly driving up our costs in many aspects of our life from insurance to health care.

    Mitt Romney - while I respect his strength in finance and business, I hold highly suspect his change from liberal to conservative. Most people form their political opinions in their 20s and 30s. To do a complete 180 in your 50s makes me question his motivation.

    Rudy Giuliani - too liberal on the social issues for me, but love the stand on terrorism.

    Fred Thompson - definitely a possibility, looks pretty good overall.

    Ron Paul - up until a few weeks ago I said there was no way I'd vote for him because I think his stance on bringing the troops home ASAP would lead to disaster over in the middle east. But lately, maybe with the slowing down of the economy, I've been more concerned about the state of our country financially. Our country is currently $9.1 trillion in debt. We need to do something and soon to bring the debt down. China is taking over our country without firing a single shot. I really like Paul's emphasis on the reduction in the size of the government. It's time the U.S. took care of its own issues instead of helping everybody else in the world in the future. If we don't get our own house of cards in order then we'll never be able to help anybody else. My only hangup is his stance on terrorism and the war on radical Islam. So my question is this: can he change? It's a universal understanding that we have been extremely lucky to have not had another 9/11 since then. All the terrorists need to do is get one hit and the U.S. government needs to stop every attack. Most agree that it's inevitable it will happen again. If Ron Paul were president and we got hit with another terrorist attack, would he then go after the terrorists? My theory has logic behind it: we get any other presidential candidate in office and we continue our big government spending ways and chances are we still get hit with a terror attack, or we put Ron Paul in office and reduce spending/size of government and still get hit with a terror attack. God willing, I would never wish a terror attack on anybody but I can't help but begin leaning toward Ron Paul. I guess my uncertainty is what would it take for him to change his mind about terrorism? How many people would have to die? In the meantime, Ron Paul is healing our financial woes as a country.

    Oh, and I quit believing I'm throwing my vote away. If everybody thinks that then we'll never throw the career politicians out.

    So what do others think? From a conservative perspective, am I off base here?

  • #2
    I have not heard any candidate talk about any of the following in debates

    1) weak US dollar
    2) balancing the budget
    3) spending cuts

    If a candidate stengthens the dollar, I think you will see the stock market sky rocket (foreign investors will come to US). Balancing the budget worked under Clinton (the man) and should work again. Deficit spending weakens the dollar.

    I voted for Perot twice and Bush jr twice. Right now I favor Edwards or McCain.

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    • #3
      No idea. I honestly don't know. Simply because ALL canidates make promises no matter how small the election if it's the class president for the 4th grade to our countries president it's impossible to guarantee "CHANGE" Our system doesn't work that way..... There are usually more forces preventing the "CHANGE" rather than encouraging it.

      I've seen stuff stamped around on money & other public things abt "ron paul" beyond that it's all I know. So right now I have no opinion but I did vote for Ross Perot myself as well. He's got the right ideas.... but getting our political system & congress to run that way!

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      • #4
        At this point, I would vote for Romney or Guiliani. Or Thompson though I don't think he will be able to mount an effective campaign.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by gackle View Post
          big-government conservative
          At one time that used to be an oxymoron, but not any more.

          Here's my take... government's not getting any less bloated and wasteful. It's better that the average Joe like me benefits. Not people like the CEOs of ExxonMobil and Halliburton.

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          • #6
            One thing, if he actually follows through on it, is Mitt Romney wanting to eliminate the tax on unearned income for anyone making less than $200k. This is great for us savers, and may encourage more people to save as the money they earn on interest will stay with them. I can see congress not wanting to lose revenue, but if the government wants people to save, they need to encourage it, or at least not penalize people for doing it.

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            • #7
              I am by no means politically oriented but my husband's family is staunch republicans so I have taken incredible heat the past few years from them for working for an company whose mission is very environmentall alogned. They call me a tree hugging democrat which I am not. I vote for who I like and I can tell you I haven't found one yet who has my vote.

              I think Obama has a good chance but realistically what do we know about him? He has not been in the political arena that long and I am not convinced he is sincere.

              Hilary - well some people say she ran the show when Bill was in office. I think she has great potential and I believe she really does care about our country. It probably is heart breaking to see the shape of our economy do a complete 180 from when Bill left office and ding dong is ending his term. yes ding dong- as i said - inlaws are republican and they gave me a VERY hard time about not voting for him in the second election - hMMMM....guess who's laughing now!

              I don't know much about Republicans but I saw Mitt Romney on Nightline one night and what I saw gave me the creeps. He was came across as very argumentative and all-knowing. It gave me flashbacks to when my state (MN) had Jesse Ventura as governor. He was flapping his gums about immigrants. I don't have a problem with them - as long as they are legal but from what I gathered he does.

              I am not sure about McCain but of the Republicans he is the one who has the most appeal. We need to remember that we need someone in office who is going to be able to change our country, get our economy back on track and be able to not piss off the rest of the world like ding dong seems to be good at doing. I think Hilary could do it but with her being a woman in other parts of the world that may hurt us.

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